“Our understanding is that David is retired, and [he] should be commended on what has been an incredible career across all three formats,” Bailey said. “Certainly, our planning is that he won’t be there in Pakistan.
“You never know when Bull’s joking…think he’s just stirring the pot a bit. He’s had a wonderful career, can’t celebrate it enough, and think as time goes by, his legacy of what he has done for Australia and we reflect back on that, the legend of a player is only going to continue to grow. But as far as this team goes and the journey to transition to some different players, in his case across all three formats, it’s going to be exciting.”
“I don’t think there’s anyone who’s not there that we’ve put a line through permanently besides David,” Bailey said. “This is the way we are going with this squad. If opportunities arise or there are gaps at different points there’s nothing to say that Wadey might not come back, but certainly, at this point, we are excited about giving Josh [Inglis] a run.
“The next T20 World Cup is 2026, so I imagine there may be some more changes than what we are seeing in this squad but specifically to those guys. [Starc and Maxwell]no we haven’t had any conversations about where they think their T20 journey may finish.
“Certainly for Glenn and Mitch, the Champions Trophy is very much on the horizon, [and is a] very important tournament for those guys. And Starcy in particular, I think he’s going to have a huge summer. Clearly, some of the decisions made around this series are around prioritizing and getting guys right for what will be a really big summer. As far as ending players, seeing where guys might finish up, we haven’t had those conversations.”
“The next T20 World Cup is 2026, so I imagine there may be some more changes than what we are seeing in this squad but specifically to those guys. [Starc and Maxwell]no we haven’t had any conversations.”
George Bailey, Australia selector
Reflecting on last month’s T20 World Cup, Bailey said there was a lingering frustration that it had fallen apart for Australia in barely 36 hours with their defeats to Afghanistan and India having been unbeaten until that point.
“Still think that T20 side, the foundation of it, is a really, really good team,” he said. “It didn’t feel like we needed to completely rip it apart and start from scratch. But it’s also a great opportunity to start to explore some other guys. Cooper’s one who hasn’t had an opportunity, [and] there’s a number of guys who have been on some tours and played one or two games but haven’t had a great deal of opportunity yet. So excited to see them get a bit more of an opportunity and start to work out how they fit into that team or into that squad.”
He also praised the captaincy of Mitchell Marsh who will lead both squads on the UK tour with Pat Cummins missing the whole trip to work on conditioning ahead of the home summer.
“I loved the way he captained through the T20 World Cup,” Bailey said. “He was really clear on how he wanted to lead that team. He was as disappointed as anyone that we didn’t get to the end goal that everyone was hoping to achieve, but if you look at his early success rate as a captain across T20 he’s done a really great job.”
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo